Bummed Out Over the 4R's

Out of the frying pan and into the fire. We've left Iraq to the Iraqis, but it seems as though it's still a mess. We've left Afghanistan to the Afghanis, but it seems as though it's still a mess. And now Russia and the US are rattling sabres over Crimea, both sides strutting armed forces around its borders, threatening dire consequences.

And in the midst of all this rhetoric the world is in turmoil - civil wars, religious wars, territorial wars, ethnic wars, drought, starvation, weather disasters, nuclear meltdowns, over-population, unemployment. Many people are unable to obtain the basic necessities of life - food, shelter, clothing, potable water. And then there's global warming....

This is an overwhelming picture in which to remain hopeful and positive about the future of our planet.

We hear about the tipping point, the point of no return, the point in time at which we are essentially doomed. We must act now say the pundits of global warming, before it's too late! On the other side of the coin there are an astonishing number of people in the world who deny the science. Global warming is not real, they say, or if it is real it's just a natural cycle and humankind has no culpability.

There are those who are doing everything they can on a personal level in order to lessen their environmental footprint. There are responsible industries attempting to clean-up their act. There are new technologies being developed that help to lessen emissions and reduce our dependance on oil. Great. But there are millions, perhaps billions, who are doing nothing at all. And then there is the institution of war.

Humankind has always been at war and we've gotten very good at it. We have all the usual weapons of war - planes, ships, guns, bombs, IED's, soldiers - add to this list missiles, drones, satellite imagery, sophisticated secret services and spy networks, the internet.... Will the human race ever realize that nothing is solved by war? Or do we even care about solving anything? Do we choose sides in a conflicts for ideology or for economy?

Why is this titled "Bummed Out About the 4R's"? Here's just a few bits of info from a web site I happened upon called Environmentalists against War - Stop the war against the planet and all it's peoples.  If you're interested in the site, though it's a bit of a reality check and a downer, you can find it at http://www.envirosagainstwar.org/index.php.

GPM — Gallons per Mile. Because the military’s tanks, planes and ships burn fuel at such intense rates, it becomes impractical to talk about consumption in "miles per gallon." Military fuel use is, instead, tabulated in "gallons-per-mile," "gallons-per-minute," and "barrels-per-hour."

A B-52 bomber gulps down 86 barrels per hour. F-4 Phantom fighter/bombers devour 40 barrels per hour. At peak thrust, F-15 fighters burn 25 gallons per minute. An F-16 jet on a training mission ignites more fuel in a single hour than the average car owner consumes in two years.

The biggest gas-hogs in the Pentagon’s arsenal are the Navy’s non-nuclear aircraft carriers that burn 134 barrels per hour and battleships which consume 68 barrels per hour. At its top speed of 25 knots, the USS Independence (a 1070-foot-long aircraft carrier with 4.1 acres of flight deck and a crew of 2300) consumes 150,000 gallons of fuel a day ... Simply "'standing by' in the Gulf, the carrier must still consume oil at a voracious pace in order to purify 380,000 gallons of fresh water daily and produce enough electricity to power the equivalent of a city of 40,000 people.

Under standard conditions the Army’s M-1 Abrams tank gets eight gallons per mile. In the heat of battle, however, the M-1 Abrams tank can eat up seven barrels — 252 gallons (based on 36 British Imperial gallons per barrel) — per hour.


As long as we continue to have wars, how can we hope to make even a dent in the process of cleaning up our environment, of slowing global warming rather than accelerating it?

And here I am - faithfully recycling, reusing, reducing, rethinking. How can such small gestures begin to address such a huge problem? No wonder I feel bummed out.